Green Party candidate wants 5 debates with Breslin

Peter LaVenia, the Green Party’s candidate in the 44th Senate District, wants five debates with Democratic incumbent Neil Breslin before November’s general election. He’s hoping to discuss issues ranging from student debt (LaVenia would like to see it cancelled), health care (he advocates for a nationwide single-payer system), election reform (he’s pressing for full public financing of campaigns) and employment (he backs the Green concept of a new WPA-style job corps to perform public works tasks such as expanding solar-panel arrays).

LaVenia’s press conference at the Capitol was timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement, as well as the end of primary season.

A co-chair of the state party and the holder of a doctorate in political science from UAlbany, LaVenia hopes to give Breslin “a sporting race, and hopefully come out the victor on Nov. 6.” He envisions separate debates focusing on the economy, the environment, health care, education and government reform.

The candidate acknowledged that his place on the ballot line didn’t require much effort: Following current election laws, he only submitted 24 signatures to win it. The bar was much higher before 2010, when Green gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins cleared the magical threshold of 50,000 votes to secure a ballot line for the party, at least through 2014. Prior to that, third-party candidates needed to file “independent nominating petitions” to win a ballot line — 1,500 signatures of independent voters for an Assembly district, 3,000 for a Senate district.

The Green Party has about a thousand registered voters in the 44th.

LaVenia said he and Breslin chatted on Labor Day, and the Democrat expressed interest but said LaVenia should get in touch with his campaign manager.

Asked if the support of 25 people (assuming he’s supporting himself) should be sufficient to make him a major figure in the race, LaVenia was sanguine.

“I think that we should have a tradition and hopefully a law that if you’re on the ballot you should be included in at least one debate with the challengers,” he said. “A problem for me and a lot of independent third-party candidates is that we don’t have a lot of people who are in the party, therefore it makes it easy for the Democrats and Republicans to ignore us, and then we get back to the problem of nobody hearing about our campaigns, so we don’t grow and expand.”

Ignoring third-party candidates, he said, “leads to a dearth of democratic debate.”

After the press conference, I asked LaVenia if the automatic ballot line — while clearly a boon to the party statewide — also presented a challenge due to the low bar for candidacy, which can have the effect of allowing slightly, well, unorthodox candidates like North Country congressional hopeful Donald Hassig to fly the party’s banner.

“It’s a really difficult issue for us. I mean, we want to be able to get on the ballot, we don’t have a lot of registrants, and that’s the case for a number of third parties — even the Working Families, I think they only have about 30,000 registrants,” he said. “But making it harder for us to get on the ballot after making it so difficult to get the ballot status, to me, would be a hindrance to us. … I think it’s unfortunate that there might be certain candidates who run — that I won’t necessarily name — in districts where the party isn’t necessarily strong that may or may not be good candidates.”

Here’s LaVenia’s release on the challenge:

Peter LaVenia, the Green Party’s candidate for State Senate in
District 44, will held a press conference on Monday, September 17, at
11AM in Albany’s Legislative Office Building, Rm. 130, 198 State Street.
LaVenia welcomed State Senator Neil Breslin into the general election
race and challenged him to five debates, focusing on the economy,
environment, education, health care, and government reform. Peter
LaVenia is currently the co-chair of the New York State Green Party, and
has a doctorate in political science from the University at Albany,
SUNY.

“I am challenging Neil Breslin to five debates between now and the
general election. These are issues of paramount importance for New
Yorkers, and the gap between my positions as a Green Party candidate and
Senator Breslin, as a Democrat, believe, is significant enough to
warrant five serious debates on each issue. These debates should be
hosted by non-partisan groups, televised and held across District 44 in
venues large enough to hold a significant amount of voters. I hope
Senator Breslin will accept as someone who values competition,
discussion of differences, and democracy, especially on the 1 year
anniversary of Occupy Wall St.,” said LaVenia.
“I believe these debates will allow voters to see that my campaign, and
the Green Party, hold views that will help build a better New York.
Unlike my opponent Neil Breslin, I believe the most pressing issue for
New Yorkers today is reaching full employment. To do that I am calling
for a permanent, public job creation program styled on the Works
Progress Administration with green jobs as a focus. It’s time to
eliminate the unemployment office, and create employment offices. These
jobs need to pay real living wages of at least $15 an hour.”

“We need a real plan to address the climate crisis. It’s time to ban
hydraulic fracturing, and fully commit to building enough renewable
energy to power New York by 2030. We need to cancel students debts,
fully fund public education from kindergarten through college, helping
provide universal tuition for New Yorkers at public colleges. I support
a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system of health care coverage for all
New Yorkers, which my opponent calls for at the national, but not the
state, level. Finally, I believe we need real government reform, from
full public financing of elections to proportional representation in the
legislature, to expand democracy and eliminate gridlock.”

“The only way the public can hear about these ideas is if we have a
series of debates on a serious level, allowing the public to see the
substance of the Green Party platform on which I am running. Otherwise,
the voters and democracy will lose in the 44th NY State Senate district,
said LaVenia.